Notes from Lane Library

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

It is Carl, your intrepid Lane Library cataloger, with another book and collection to talk about. This time I read a brand new book from the Wisconsin's Own Library (WOL) collection. This wonderful collection is located in the South Reading Room of Lane Library and focuses on authors from, and topics about Wisconsin. There is no other library collection anything like WOL on the planet. It will probably come as a shock to some that Lane Library doesn't own the WOL collection. It is here on semi-permanent loan through the General Federation of Women's Clubs of Wisconsin.

The book I read is titled 547 days to home : the resurrection of a pastor and a small town church / by Daniel L. Bohlman. I highly recommend this book. It is the heartwarming story of a despondent pastor named Ed who has been successively fired from his previous churches. He is given one last chance by his district bishop to fill out his last 547 days and then retire with a full church pension. Grudgingly, Pastor Ed agrees to give it one last try. The congregation he is sent to serve is on its last legs. They have only a few members left and are not bringing in enough offerings to sustain their congregation much longer. The congregants are set in their ways and don't like change. On top of this, there is a local mega-church that is looking to force all of the other churches in the area to close. Pastor Ed has a huge task ahead of him, should he choose to accept it. He is faced with a choice to fill out his days at Guernsey Community Church and retire, or make a real difference in the lives of those around him. How he accepts this challenge covers a range of emotions and lends life and humor to this heartwarming story. Can this once star pastor save a dying small-town congregation? Can the people of this congregation save him? Read 547 day to home to find out. I'm very happy I read it, and I suspect you will be too. If you do read it, let me know what you think of it.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Our Digital Makerspace schedule is up and running for the spring semester, and we have a whole new set of offerings to learn new techniques. Look them over, and mark your calendars to attend. The workshops are 30 minute sessions, being offered twice each week on Tuesdays at 4pm and Wednesdays at 12:30pm in the Waitkus Lab of Lane Library.

Below are some brief descriptions:

Visualize Data

Feb 3 @4 pm/Feb 4 @ 12:30 pm

Got data? Learn how to make data visually accessible by integrating it with Google Maps. By taking either your own data or free data sets from government information, find out how to create a map that can tell the data's story. Using Google Fusion tables, you will find out the techniques to plot a table of locations or create an intensity map.

Record and Edit Audio

Feb 10 @4 pm/Feb 11 @ 12:30 pm

Have you ever needed to record audio or music, be it for a report, music practice, or even an alternate soundtrack for a movie? Come and learn about FREE, powerful audio software that will meet your basic recording needs. Do you have the "Audacity" to attend?

Build and Share Collections Online

Feb 17 @4 pm/Feb 18 @ 12:30 pm

Do you have collection that you want to make more accessible? Find out what will work best for you and how to transform your collection into a digital exhibition.

Edit Images

Feb 24 @4 pm/Feb 25 @ 12:30 pm

Wondering how to
take your photos from good to amazing? Want to add a little text to
your photos? Come explore our pick of free image editing software, and let your photos have their time to
shine.

Create a Screencast

Mar 3 @4 pm/Mar 4 @ 12:30 pm

Want to create tutorials which
can be recorded and viewed later? Find out more about a free tool that can be used to make video tutorials from screenshots in order to illustrate how to do something on
the computer.

Analyze Texts with Software

Mar 10 @4 pm/Mar 11 @ 12:30 pm

Learn how to use free text analyzing software to do everything from tracking publication trends over time to doing key word analysis. Find out what you can do when digital technology and communication meet to create new possibilities in scholarly research.

Create and Edit Videos

Mar 24 @4 pm/Mar 25 @ 12:30 pm\

Looking for a new twist on an assignment? Stop by to learn the best techniques to create a video using the cameras and iPads available to you through the library. The
iMovie app is also available on our iPads, which means you can make the
videos the length you need for assignments or promotional materials for
your class, club or sport.

Create a Dynamic Map

Mar 31 @4 pm/Apr 1 @ 12:30 pm

Working on a project that is tied to a place? Learn how to create an interactive map where you can provide your historical, statistical or any other research information tied to a location of your choosing.

Publish and Share Information

Apr 7 @4 pm/Apr 8 @ 12:30 pm

Learn to create a wiki or webpage for yourself, your student
organization or class project. Find the tips and tricks necessary to
navigate and create your own web presence using free tools available to you.

If you have any questions, comments, or any suggestions for future Digital Makerspace workshops, please let us know!

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Here is another blog post from your Lane Library Cataloger, Carl Z. Today's topic focuses on Neanderthals. As you know from previous posts, many books come through my department and there is certainly not enough time in a day to read all of them. Although, I have been known to check out a book from time to time and take it home. Recently, a book titled Neanderthal Man : in search of lost genomes by Svante Pääbo caught my attention. This book centers around how Pääbo researched and mapped Neanderthal DNA. He tells his story of research and discovery in a generally linear (biographical) fashion. If you, dear reader, are a science major or just love the art and science of research, here is your opportunity to learn how a cutting-edge scientific researcher thinks. One of the big questions posed in this book was whether modern humans and Neanderthal humans interbred and if modern humans living today contain some Neanderthal genes. According to the findings, peoples from Europe, China and Papua New Guinea have some Neanderthal genes. So yes, somewhere back in history, there was interbreeding between these two species of humans. If you want to find out more about these findings, I strongly urge you read this interesting and engaging book. It is available at Lane Library. Call no: GN285.P33 N42 2014.

On a somewhat related note, starting in 1980, Jean Auel began writing a series of fiction books. Her first novel was titled Clan of the Cave Bear and was about a young orphaned girl who was taken in and raised by a group of Neanderthals. A campy movie by the same title, starring Daryl Hannah, was also produced, but in my opinion, and Auel's, it didn't quite capture the full scope and spirit of her first book. Auel went on to write five more books in the Earth's Children series for a total of six. She, in doing research for her fiction, visited significant archaeological sites in France and other parts of Europe and kept abreast of Neanderthal research. In her fiction, she wrote about Neanderthals and modern humans interbreeding. Now we know through science that this phenomenon actually did occur. I found these books to be a real adventure to read, although I must warn our sensitive readers that there is some violence and sexuality in these books. These novels by Auel are available at the Ripon Public Library.

So Gentleman, if a friend or your significant other calls you a "Neanderthal," that person might ironically be closer to the truth than he or she thinks. I'll let you chew on that thought for awhile.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Need an academic or documentary style video clip for a presentation or class? Looking for something interesting and educational to watch on your computer at home or in your dorm room? We now offer thousands of possibilities to be found in the Films on Demand database.

Ripon College now has access to Films on Demand, the Humanities and Social Sciences collection. This database provides streaming access to thousands of full length videos, and even more video clips from a wide variety of producers such as American Experience, BBC Films, Ken Burns, Nova and PBS among others.

Any Ripon College student, faculty or staff may access this online video collection on-campus or off-campus through this Films on Demand direct link and by using your MyRipon login and password when off-campus. (This is the same information that you use to access any computer on campus.) You can also access Films on Demand through the library's online database list under "databases and journals" at www.ripon.edu/library/

Search by title or browse by subject or collection to find a video of interest for you. Once you find a film, you may access it by segments or view the film in its entirety. Searchable transcripts are also available for most films, as well as closed captioning/subtitles.

If you have any question on how to use this database, please ask one of your librarians or view one of the available tutorials or webinars from Films on Demand.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Many students are struggling with keeping above water when it comes to financing their education. Often students rely too heavily on loans, not understanding the difference between grants, loans, subsidized, unsubsidized, and how the interest rate affects the future cost of the loan. The far better option is to get a scholarship - a few hundred dollars from various organizations every year over four years of college can save you thousands after you leave.

Finding, applying for, and winning scholarships is terribly daunting. Many students don't even know where to start. Starting next semester, Lane Library will be having a multi-week Scholarship Workshop. During these two-hour workshops, you'll learn about all kinds of scholarships out there, how to find them, and best practices when it comes to winning them. Most importantly, you'll have a set time and place to focus on getting scholarships and others to help you with applying. If a student came to the seven week workshop, spending two hours each week, and earned a $500 scholarship, that's equivalent to earning $35.71 dollars an hour! Quite a pay raise from any campus position! Part of our time will also be set aside for learning about how to manage your finances so you leave college with as much money as possible.

To prepare for this workshop, the library got a few scholarship books, available for anyone to use. So we can be sure many students have a chance with them, they are on the reserves shelf. They circulate for 2 hours, in-library use only.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Although these images appear remarkably similar despite the many decades which separate them, West Hall has changed greatly over the years. Currently Anthropology, the language departments and ROTC inhabit the three main floors and two lower levels. These four walls have also housed residents, a chapel, the college library and a gymnasium.
Photo Credit: Karlyn Schumacher

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

It is Carl again, your loyal cataloger, ready to encourage you to do a little light reading over break, between catching up on all of your paper writing. [Yes, I remember those days when I was also an undergrad and wouldn't trade them for the world.] I again report to you from the hub of Lane Library where amazing things continue to happen - behind the scenes.

I'm sure some of you wonder what your librarians do when they are not at their desks. Like all people, we do a variety of things, including reading. After the release of the movie DIVERGENT (which I haven't had a chance to see - yet), I wanted to know more about the story. Lane Library owns the collection of novels, so I decided to sit down and read them. I was drawn in immediately by the characters and storyline. So, that is the background to today's blog post. I am very happy I read them and I would encourage you to consider doing the same sometime - maybe even over fall break.

I'm sure that some of you have already seen the film DIVERGENT or have read the book series that I mentioned above by Veronica Roth. For those of you who are not familiar with Roth's series and do not mind a few spoilers, read on. Veronica's series is a work of Dystopian fiction, and it revolves around a society somewhere in the future, located in the ruins of the once great metropolis of Chicago. To set the stage, we meet a young woman named Beatrice Prior who is a member of one of the groups that makes up this society. The society she lives in consists of five groups of people, known as factions. At the age of 16, each young person in this society must take a test which determines which faction that person actually belongs. Upon taking this test, Beatrice finds out that she is divergent and that she has a proclivity for multiple factions. She must keep this fact a secret, for to reveal this could lead to her untimely death. On choosing day, she chooses a much different faction than she grew up in. This is where the story really gets interesting.

Spoiler Alert: This is a story of growth through strife. First Beatrice must survive the initiation into the faction she chose, which is very difficult. Then she must then survive a civil war, only to discover that she and everyone she loves is part of a closed experiment and genetic restoration project. Talk about turning one's world upside down. Let's just say that the young woman you meet at the beginning of this story is not the person you know at the end. Since this story takes place in post-apocalyptic Chicago, many iconic places are mentioned, including Millennium Park, Navy Pier, The Hancock Center, O'Hare Airport, the Chicago 'L', and even the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (briefly in the third book).

So, if you want a little light reading set in a strangely familiar world, I'd suggest checking out DIVERGENT, INSURGENT, and ALLEGIENT. These books (and many, many more) are available at Lane Library, and at other libraries in this area.

This is Carl the Cataloging Librarian signing off. Happy reading, and have a great Fall Break!